Amazon announces to launch its first internet satellites in late 2022

The technology giant filed a request with the Federal Communications Commission to launch and operate its first two prototype satellites, called KuiperSat-1 and KuiperSat-2. Amazon says the satellites will launch with ABL Space on its RS1 rocket.

“We’ll soon be ready to see how [the satellites] perform in space,” Amazon vice president Rajeev Badyal said in a statement. “There is no substitute for on-orbit testing, and we expect to learn a lot given the complexity and risk of operating in such a challenging environment.”

Project Kuiper is Amazon’s plan to build a network of 3,236 satellites in low Earth orbit to provide high-speed internet to anywhere in the world. The FCC last year authorized Amazon’s system, which the company says it plans to “invest more than $10 billion” in Kuiper. Early service from Kuiper is set to begin once Amazon has 578 satellites in orbit.

Amazon last week announced a partnership with Verizon, to collaborate with the telecom giant in the increasingly competitive field of high-speed satellite internet.

Kuiper is poised to go toe-to-toe with SpaceX’s Starlink network, which is the furthest along in the latest generation of broadband satellite systems. A variety of other networks are in various stages of development, including those of British-owned OneWeb, BlackRock-backed Astranis, satellite-to-smartphone specialist AST SpaceMobile, Lockheed Martin’s partnership with start-up Omnispace, and Canadian satellite operator Telesat’s Lightspeed.

The Project Kuiper team has grown steadily at Amazon, which now has more than 750 people and “hundreds more” expected to be hired in the next year. Amazon built a 219,000 square-foot facility in Redmond, Washington to test and manufacture the satellites, and plans to add another 20,000 square-foot facility.

SOURCE: CNBC